Sussex — Be careful where you step around the pastures near Sussex; you just might get your boots covered in fuel for the newest energy innovation — and that’s no bull.
In response to the Gallant government’s fracking moratorium, Corridor Resources announced today that they will cease operations at all natural gas wells near Sussex and turn their focus to a greener alternative to hydraulic fracturing. Inspired by the location of their operations in the so-called “Dairy Capital of the Maritimes,” the energy company will now focus their efforts in New Brunswick on methane recovery from a totally natural source — cow manure.
Corridor Resources is investing millions to purchase anaerobic digesters to capture the methane bio-gas for industry use, and in turn prevent the release of greenhouse gas into the atmosphere. “When the people of New Brunswick voted for the Gallant government, they made it clear that they didn’t support our hydraulic fracturing activities in the province,” said Corridor Resources president and CEO Jeeves Maroon. “I admit it felt like a slap in the face, but we tried not to take it personally.
“A few weeks later, we were sitting around the Thirsty Mule Saloon in Sussex and we chatted up a group of local dairy farmers. After a few rounds, we had our ‘eureka’ moment. We are methane extractors, and they own ‘methane producers’ by the hundreds,” he explained. “It was a marriage made in the cows’ 4 stomachs!”
Pipeline-quality natural gas is 95 percent methane, otherwise known as “CH4.” Methane is also a greenhouse gas and 23 times more potent than carbon dioxide in trapping heat in the atmosphere. Livestock, especially cattle, produce methane as part of their digestion. This process is called enteric fermentation, and it represents almost a third of the total greenhouse gas emissions from the agriculture sector. A single cow produces 800 to 1,000 litres of methane emissions each day. Cows themselves are by far the biggest producers of the gas, contributing to around 25 percent of all methane produced on the planet.
Anaerobic manure digesters collect manure and convert the energy stored in its organic matter into methane, which has industrial applications very similar to natural gas. The conversion to methane is the result of anaerobic digestion — a biochemical process in which organic matter is heated and decomposed by bacteria in the absence of oxygen. Once the methane is harvested, the leftover matter can be sold as fertilizer.
Corridor Resources has plans to deploy 125 manure digesters throughout the entire province — in every major centre and all points in between. When asked how they plan to collect enough cow manure for all of those digesters, Corridor said they plan to collect cow dung from all over eastern North America and bring it to New Brunswick. “What we can’t produce here we can import,” explained Maroon. “New Brunswick will become the bullshit capital of the world.”
Some citizens are voicing concerns about Corridor’s plan to import tonnes of cow manure to the cities, towns and villages of New Brunswick. Many are claiming that the new plan is a method of passive-aggressive payback for the public opposition to fracking during the last provincial election.
“Nothing could be further from the truth,” said Maroon. “This strategy is an environmentally friendly way to harvest methane for energy markets, but also to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. What’s the matter with these objectors? Don’t they like the environment? It’s a win-win in our view. We also are committed to buying local manure and creating hundreds of shit-transport jobs.
“In fact,” he continued, “we are encouraging farmers to deliver tractor loads of manure via the highway during rush hour. Especially on hot summer days. We want everyone in the province to … ‘experience’ our new environmentally friendly energy strategy for New Brunswick.”